Sun, Nov 22 2009
Thousands of Roma from Bulgaria and Romania have sought sanctuary in Spain, Spanish social services said.
Aiming to escape poverty, the people have chosen large cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia or Seville, Spanish information agency EFE said.
They settle in deserted buildings or form camps on the outskirts of the cities. Some of the people live in the streets.
EFE quoted a Bulgarian of Roma origin as saying that life was difficult, because the emigrants lacked a home and work.
Up to now, the Bulgarian and Romanian Roma emigrants had been unaffected by the law, regardless of daily police patrolling, EFE said.
Welcomed by the UK government, France and Germany, as well as the US, the naming of Belgium’s Herman van Rompuy as European Council President and Catherine Ashton as foreign policy chief has caused misgivings in some circles, including Turkey which believes that Van Rompuy will oppose Turkish membership of the bloc.
The dinner meeting of EU leaders to decide on the European Council President and the bloc’s new foreign minister and head of secretariat could take a few hours or all night, says host Fredrik Reinfeldt, Sweden’s prime minister.
Russia and the European Union have agreed on an early warning system if another natural gas cutoff looms. Some say that Bulgaria, among other countries hard-hit by the January 2009 crisis, is now better prepared. Not everyone is convinced.
Five Bulgarian films screened at the World Film Festival in Bangkok.
A complicated game, played partly in the dark, and with elements of everything from poker to tug ‘o war – that’s the way Europe’s leaders will come up with its new European Council President, foreign minister and European Commission.